how to skin a polar bear

By Nastja Säde Rönkkö

First, to find a polar bear you have to travel North of Lapland, across the open seas and onto the ice highways, past the winter wonderland, winter Disneyland, past the closed shipping lanes and cancelled railway plans. Drive your snowmobile with care, carry your rifle with you and keep driving. Drive drive drive, fly across the open space, get drunk with speed but not too drunk so you don’t flip over. Keep the balance and slow down now, on the melting sea ice, slow but don’t stop for the sea will swallow you if it cares, for it might not, you are nothing and the sea immense. Drive towards the glacier, the retreating one, the sounds and the roars, we are close now, very close. Here one can get lost into onto whiteness blueness transparent baby hair milk crystals under the dark skies northern lights, there you go south of that mountain, north of this inlet, east of that river, west of these seal fat bellies and we are. And here, now, here you will find her. With her cubs she might be, nursing them, her thick fat rich creamy milk furry bellies full and round milk and seal guts and blood and skin fat and a few bones perhaps, human or not, sledge dog or pet cat, perhaps. Who knows, but here we are now, now what? You have to shoot, use your rifle for you cannot skin her alive, she is too big, too strong, too everything. That would be cruel indeed. You, just a human, so weak and shivering with cold and excitement, you smell the blood, be done with it already. Leave the cubs for later, they won’t survive alone, worry about the mother, always worry about the mother. Okay and you are done with it, are you? Did she fight? Of course she did, with her paws and her claws and her teeth and her body and muscles, all her might and all her strength and oh boy what scared you the most was her roar, wasn’t it? So primal, so furious, so alive but your rifle was louder and gave you courage and power and meaning and a thrill and you are human, you got done with it, now she is very still and her huge black white red body yours to investigate, get very close to, look at her, look at her now. Is she gone, for sure? Can you open her mouth, just a quick peek in? Get teeth out, could be a souvenir, to hang around your neck. Or you could make a bracelet. Oh they are so big, those teeth, her mouth is still wet and moist and warm, saliva. Her tongue big and thick and from within, somewhere here the roar came just a little while ago somewhere here it was primal and somewhere here it vibrated with the universe and somewhere here. And what about her gaze now, so dull, eyes still and black and all the light and stars and the universe gone now. Eyes ice gone melted. But let’s move on, there isn’t much time left. The hair, that beautiful hair fur so warm, it looks like but it’s not white, it’s transparent, her thick hair yes it is and her skin underneath dark to absorb the light the sun the warmth I bet she is warm never cold you would want to curl up next to her now and lay down so soft and warm and full of life she was, someone else’s breathing someone else’s roaring, nothing sorry or tiny or bony in her, unlike human bodies so naked with thin hair left only in few areas useless for warmth or protection. Where are the cubs? Gone, trying to run now white on white somewhere I bet they are cute but soon dead and cold, don’t worry about them now, you could sit here for a moment, just a little moment be where they were, take the place close your eyes but just a little moment, she is still warm, isn’t she, too still but warm right? Okay time to get up, the time to skin the polar bear, that’s why we came here. You had your break get up get on with it now. This is the skinning situation here, take your knives, the ones you sharpened already and do exactly as I say.

At the beginning, you have to detach her feet from her fur. Her whole foot and her toes, all of them on each paw need to be skinned out, each toe on each paw. Then you skin the pad off the foot bones. Cut around. Then, after you’ve skinned all her feet you are gonna move on. Turn her lips upside down, for the salt needs to penetrate them. Turn her lips and then split her nose, splitting her nose is important, remember. And then the eyes, flesh them well. All neat and clean and then turn the ears too. Yes, you heard me turn her ears now: turn each ear inside out, separate the skin on the back of the ear from her tendons. After this you will start fleshing. Work her flesh from nose to tail. With your knife, remove her meat, the fat, the scar tissue, all of that. Go around the edges, be neat, get it all out. Take your time, you want to end up with a big pile of polar bear meat at the center of her carcass. Well, once you are done with this, get onto your all fours, on top of her and take your salt out. Rub it in her, everywhere, don’t leave an inch unsalted. The edges, get them, the ears, get them, the lips and nose too. Rub it in real good and then you can rest a little. Now we just have to wait, give it some time, maybe a day. When you come back to it, scrape it all off, the wet salt, her moisture, then hang her to dry. You might want to salt her out once more and then hang her to dry again. After that you can just fold her up, when she is still little flexible, fold her up before her hide gets too hard. So much work, you must be getting all hot and sweaty now. Get naked, just here, just now, next to her carcass, you have worked so hard. Look at you now, you are both naked, both skinned and all flesh, everything to be seen under your fur and hair. This cannot be, you think, where is that majestic creature, where is the hair, where is the bear? Now you should calm down, yes, don’t be alarmed that you look the same. Skinny, sorry creature she is now, like you. And if she only stood up on her two legs, she would look just like you. Her facial expressions like yours, yes and she cries tears, bear tears. I bet she would cry now, if she could. The shape of her body so human like, so like yours. I wonder, is she cold too? And now you would say out loud, perhaps, or not, that I’m anxious to get away and I would say now, take your snowmobile and drive as fast as you can, past the glaciers past the inlets and rivers and mountains and seals and highways drive, drive but not drunk with speed but anxious, afraid even, drive like it is chasing you, but not too dangerously, not too fast for it is not really chasing you, that’s silly it’s dead now. It is dead and still and still there she is, where you went to skin her. Still and still she is, there where she nursed her cubs, now those also left behind alone and together. You are anxious to get home so drive as fast as you can, but not too dangerously, so you don’t flip your snowmobile over. Drive away before the darkness coldness sweat come to love you, to take you and your tales. For you should know, it comes so fast in here, Polar nights, Northern lights.

Nastja Säde Rönkkö is an artist working with video, moving image, performance, installation and text. She has exhibited and performed internationally and received awards including Finland’s Young Artist of the Year in 2019, the Below Zero Art Prize in 2023 and the five-year state grant from Arts Council Finland in 2024.